Some History About GNU/Linux

Jan 30th, 2009

Linus Torvalds was born on December 28 1969 in Helsinki Finland . Linus Torvalds enrolled at the university of Helsinki where he studied computer science . He bought an intel 386 computer and he began using Minix a Unix version developed by Andrew Tannenbaum. He was not able to connect to his university computer from home from the terminal . So he developed one and was successful connecting it . Later he needs more features like send and receive files .He like to name the new one as Freax . But later named it as Linux after his friend suggests it. This is what he sends to minix news group . From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)Newsgroups: comp.os.minixSubject: What would you like to see most in minix?Summary: small poll for my new operating systemMessage-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FIDate: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMTOrganization: University of HelsinkiHello everybody out there using minix -I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big andprofessional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewingsince april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback onthings people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)among other things).I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, andI’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestionsare welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them :–) Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably neverwill support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :–(. He uploaded in september 1991 . Thus new operating system was born . The people around the world loved the code and started adding and modifying codes . Now there are various distributions of Linux . Some are the debain , ubuntu , fedora , kubuntu , redhatetc . If you are interested to try linux you can use it with out installng the system . You can use a live cd to boot and see linux . There is another one wubi which can be used for installing linux from windows in a single click . Just need to give the password , grab a cup of tea and come . The wubi installer will do the rest. Try wubi if you dont want to burn a live cd . wubi only installs ubuntu distro for now. You can see FAQ of the wubi site for more details .